transcultural r&b

of late i have been noticing a crop of african musicians who were born on the continent or have african parents but grew up in europe or the united states. most of them mine the neo-soul/classic r&b/jazzy funk vein, inspired by other trans-continental artists like sade and seal. you will not find this music in the “world” music section of your local music emporium, if at all. these artists go beyond that label, carrying forward the r&b musical tradition, while grounding their themes in the concerns of their homeland, particularly pride, dignity and a sense of joy. it also seems like a way to join the world they live in with the one of their roots, much like the r&b that deeply influenced me in the 70’s and 80’s allowed me to feel pride in being part of the larger world, through the beauty of this music of the african diaspora.

here is a sample (far from exhaustive i am sure, based on memory and recent sightings/readings):
shu: kenya/new york
miriam chemmoss: kenya/new york
eska mtungwazi: zimbabwe/england
mpho skeef: south africa/england
rhian benson: ghana/united kingdom/los angeles
victor sila: kenya/san francisco
dozie: nigeria/united kingdom/bay area

the night commuters of uganda

stumbled upon 2 unrelated (i think) doings about the children who commute into the streets of ugandan cities to sleep there overnight so that they do not get kidnapped and conscripted into the lord’s resistance army to “fight” the horrendous northern uganda war.

1. don cheadle and his family went to uganda to do a screening of hotel rwanda to raise money and filmed a short documentary called “journey into sunset“. it will premiere at the tribeca film festival next week here in nyc.

2. three young cali filmmakers who also did a documentary on the night commuters called “invisible children“. they are organizing a global night commute to ask americans to spend one night (4/29) sleeping in the streets like the kids in uganda. they have a video to promote the event that is funny riff on the michael jackson “if-we-dance-we-can-save-the-world” school of thought.

i for one have stopped wondering how the world stood by and let the nazi holocaust happen. in my time rwanda, congo, darfur and northern uganda have all taken place (the last three together) and i have blithely gone on with my life with little more than an occasional twinge of outrage.

letter to president kibaki

open letter to president mwai kibaki on a recent assault on press independence in kenya.

Dear President Kibaki:

On March 2, 2006 government forces raided the headquarters and printing plant of the Standard Group. In addition to destroying equipment and newspapers, they shut down the KTN news station.

This latest attack follows the jailing of three journalists from Standard Newspaper, attacks on Citizen Weekly, and ongoing harassment of journalists by government-sponsored forces.

I urge you to condemn these attacks and to support freedom of the press.

[via kenyan pundit]

africa::fashion::redux

chris seydou and the evolution of modern “african style”.

Annoyed by THE African style he had himself forged, he wanted his production to break free from generalised baroquism and interpret contemporary African society with its contradictions between narrow identity linked to heritage and the commonplace urban modernity he liked to live. Chris Seydou was starting his revolution and, without denouncing his desire to integrate the Seydou African materials and patterns, was seeking a new path that would reintegrate the meaning of the Chris in his name, which he took as a tribute to Christian Dior.

see also:
xuly.bet: fashion line of mali-born lamine kouyate.

alphadi: niger-born fashion designer.

stoned cherrie: south african designer nkhensani manganyi’s “urban african” fashion line inspired by DRUM, sophiatown and the culture of protest in rsa.

stop motion studies, the remix

Stop Motion Studies – Series 13: montage of stop motion animations of people being photographed in the subways of tokyo, london, paris, new york and boston. (original animations for each of the cities were originally posted on the internets around 2003).

“It is said that 90% of human communication is non-verbal. In these photographs, the body language of the subjects becomes the basic syntax for a series of animations exploring movement, gesture, and algorithmic montage. Many sequences document a person’s reaction to being photographed by a stranger. Some smile, others snarl, still others perform. Some pretend not to notice. Underneath all of this are assumptions and unknowns unique to each situation.”

cg and jozi

two stunning computer graphic-based short films filmed in jo’burg, south africa directed by neill bloomkamp (famous for the dancing-transformer-citreon commercial).

tetra-vaal [click on the right of page for quicktime movie] mock commercial for robocop that can patrol the er, grittier parts of jo’burg.

alive in joburg [quicktime movie] mock documentary about aliens occupying jo’burg, their plight suspiciously like that of the black south africans they live amongst in the shanties of kliptown.

419 ways to come up with the right scheme

the “419 scam” from the nigerian point of view, (”we are motivated by poverty, our victims are greedy and/or stupid”).

I Go Chop Your Dollar [quicktime movie].

I go chop your dollar
I go take your money, disappear
419 is just a game
You are the loser, I am the winner

419 State of Mind, part II[audio, mp3] by Mode 9, hip hop ditty narrating how the scams are executed.

No 9 to 5
So we transform to 419

[via my heart's in accra]

it ain’t cool to be white anymore

the changing (i.e. more ethnic) face of corporate stock photography. “the visual monoculture of the 20th century is in the dustbin of history”. so posits getty images.

skin deep

albino: image series on people with albinism by south african photographer pieter hugo.
via south africa-based art/documentary photography magazine ak47

johannesburg series

johannesburg series: photo essay by south african photographer guy tillim on office towers in central johannesburg abandoned in the 1990s that now have been taken over by poor african squatters.